Choosing the right HubSpot specialist can make the difference between an excellent operational management of your business and an incomprehensible gas factory.
HubSpot is a complex and expensive tool that requires expertise and experience to be used to its full potential. A specialist who understands the ins and outs of the platform can help you maximize its capabilities and achieve your goals.
Working with the wrong specialist can result in wasted time, resources and budget.
Or even worse...
An inexperienced specialist without much knowledge of the platform and without a real understanding of your issues will certainly lead to operational problems and a lack of vision on your data and results.
The person in charge of your HubSpot portal has an angular role in the smooth running of your activity. It is crucial to find the right person who will be able to support you in your growth.
This article is part of my blog series on how to find the perfect match for managing your HubSpot Portal.
In this article, we'll cover the key factors to consider when choosing a HubSpot specialist.
Summary :
- Identify your business needs
- What do you expect from your HubSpot portal?
- What is the current status of your HubSpot portal?
- What are the pain points and challenges encountered in your use of HubSpot?
- Find a HubSpot specialist
- Evaluate a HubSpot Specialist
- Red flags and reassuring points
- Endnotes
Identify your business needs
This step is crucial in any good search for a HubSpot specialist. The range of possibilities in terms of developing a HubSpot portal is huge. Clearly defining your needs will allow you to:
- Define a precise framework for your future collaboration with your HubSpot specialist
- Guide the interview with your specialist around your real issues
- Evaluate the methods and know-how of the HubSpot specialist during the interview by asking him to theoretically meet your needs through “Quick Wins”
To do this, ask yourself three questions.
What do you expect from your HubSpot portal?
If you feel the need to hire a specialist, chances are you have a project in mind.
Is it a matter of managing your portal on a regular basis? Developing a new operational axis? Start a new market? etc
In an ideal world, what would you like your HubSpot portal to achieve?
By asking yourself this question, you will define a short-term action plan and a long-term vision of your objectives relating to the use of the platform.
What is the current status of your HubSpot portal?
Take the time to identify the HubSpot Plan you currently subscribe to and list the tasks and actions that you and your teams carry out on a daily basis on the platform.
Defining a starting point for support is essential and will allow your HubSpot specialist to frame his actions and understand your operational organization.
What are the pain points and challenges encountered in your use of HubSpot?
HubSpot is an all-in-one tool that is, or can be, used by all of your company's teams.
Your needs are not necessarily the same as those of the sales team, for example. Take the time to ask each team about the pain points and limitations encountered when using HubSpot.
Clearly defining the issues of each team will facilitate the understanding and development of a global strategy for the organization of your portal to maximize its use in all aspects of your business.
Find a HubSpot specialist
HubSpot expertise is a niche skill and freelancers and collaborators who master it in depth are not many, it might be a hard task to internalize that skill. However, there are several places to find your hidden gem.
The HubSpot Directory
HubSpot offers direct access within your portal to the list of agencies, freelancers and service providers linked to HubSpot. You will find an exhaustive choice of potential partners, sorted by customer reviews, to support you in the development of your HubSpot portal.
However, the majority of partners listed are HubSpot Agencies. Agencies offer different support and services than a HubSpot specialist. Understand the differences between these two types of provider and make your choice.
To access it from your portal, click on “Marketplace” and choose “Solutions Directory”
Freelance websites
An effective way to find a HubSpot specialist is to search for profiles on specialized freelancing sites like Malt.uk or LinkedIn for a wider choice.
The advantage of platforms like Malt.uk is to be able to instantly:
- Check availability of a HubSpot specialist
- Know your average daily rate
- Discover the missions and projects already carried out
HubSpot Communities
HubSpot differs from other tools by its ability to build a very active community. There are several communities where you can find your HubSpot specialist. Let’s discover the two main ones:
- HubSpot Community
This is HubSpot's official community forum. On this support forum, you can ask your questions and start a discussion with a myriad of experts (in particular by consulting the “HubSpot expert leaderboard”)
- Reddit r/hubspot
A SubReddit entirely dedicated to HubSpot issues and questions. This SubReddit is globally active with an average of three to five daily posts. Many HubSpot specialists are present and active in this community and will be happy to support you in the development of your portal.
Choosing a HubSpot specialist in these communities is a great strategy. You can consult all the answers that an expert has to provide to the community. A HubSpot specialist's activity on these forums demonstrates an inquisitive, selfless, and problem-solving mentality. Crucial qualities for a HubSpot specialist.
Ask us
The particularity of HS Simple is to build a community of fully trained HubSpot specialists within HS Simple. If you want to find the right HubSpot specialist for your business, I'd be happy to find the perfect match for you.
Evaluate a HubSpot Specialist
Now that you have access to all these profiles, let's find out how to select the right HubSpot specialist.
The experience
What makes the difference between a freelancer who calls himself a “HubSpot specialist” and a real expert on the platform is, of course, experience.
An elimination criterion in your search should be the presence or absence of HubSpot certifications. For a specialist, these certifications are only a formality and do not allow to assess the deep skills of the latter. However, a “specialist” who does not care enough to update his skills demonstrates a lack of investment in the platform and does not have proof that the minimum skills have been acquired.
Unlike other types of service such as copywriting, HubSpot expertise requires very little experience in your industry. You always prefer a HubSpot specialist with the most diverse backgrounds possible. His mastery of all the features offered by the platform and the application of multiple strategies involving a different use of this tool guarantees the adaptability and creativity required to carry out the optimal management of your portal.
Conduct an interview
Once you have defined your needs and validated the experience of your candidate, you will move on to the interview phase. This phase, as with any recruitment, is the most important in the process of selecting your HubSpot specialist.
Give the specialist as much context as possible to be able to discuss topics directly related to your portal.
Tell him about the different pain points identified in part 1 and ask him to offer you solutions to solve them (the famous Quick Wins).
The relational quality of the specialist must be decisive in your choice. If the solutions provided seem incomprehensible or too “complex”, there is a good chance that your specialist does not have good communication skills and/or good work organization.
These two qualities are essential to allow you to maintain control over your portal. Under no circumstances do you want someone outside your organization to be the only one to understand and master all of the operational automation and management of your database. It's also important to know what to expect and how to optimize your collaboration with your HubSpot specialist.
In the best-case scenario, give them access to your portal and ask them to briefly audit the management of your HubSpot to see if they quickly identify areas for improvement. Also ask him to carry out one of the solutions proposed during your interview in order to validate his expertise.
Red flags and reassuring points
In order to facilitate your decision regarding this or that HubSpot specialist, I offer you a list of red flags during your interview and a list of points that may indicate a potential good candidate.
Red flags
- The specialist is not up to date in his HubSpot certifications
- The specialist has no previous experience to offer or only similar experiences
- The specialist does not ask questions about the organization of your business and the organizational processes in place
- The specialist works with many clients at the same time
- The specialist offers answers and solutions that you do not 100% understand
- The specialist deems it unnecessary to meet the various employees of your company
Reassuring points
- The specialist has a wide range of experience
- The specialist takes the time to take a detailed look at the organization of your activity
- The specialist himself offers to analyze your portal
- The specialist indicates that he wants to meet employees using the HubSpot portal
- The specialist promotes unique (or almost) and long-term relationships
Endnotes
Finding the perfect HubSpot specialist for your business is no easy task. Through this article, I hope I have been able to guide your research and avoid pitfalls that could negatively impact your business.
If you'd like to chat with me about your HubSpot specialist search, I'd be happy to help.
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